On the first anniversary of the start of deck construction for the UK’s longest railway bridge, HS2 reveals the first enormous lake piers that will carry the 2-mile viaduct across a series of waterways on the outskirts of London.

A key viaduct that will take HS2 trains across the A413 and local rail lines south of Wendover has been given the green light by Buckinghamshire Council.

The two giant tunnelling machines pass a third of five ventilation and emergency access shafts on the 10-mile-long Chiltern tunnel.

Plans to bring high-speed rail to Manchester are already well underway. To inform the next steps in the Parliamentary process, HS2 is engaging local communities to discuss proposed changes to its construction designs to reduce future flood impacts in West Didsbury.

Two giant tunnelling machines – named ‘Florence’ and ‘Cecilia’ – pass halfway mark during excavation of the 10 mile long Chiltern tunnels. 1.3 million cubic metres of material – enough to fill more than 500 Olympic sized swimming pools – excavated during first 5 miles.

The 2.1 mile (3.4km) Colne Valley Viaduct will be 100m longer than Dundee’s Tay Bridge, which currently holds the title. Once complete, the bridge will carry the new high-speed rail line across a series of lakes and waterways near Hillingdon on the north-west outskirts of London.

HS2 minister Huw Merriman became the first person to officially walk on top of the UK’s longest railway bridge, which is under construction at an HS2 site just outside London.

Two of the UK’s biggest infrastructure projects celebrated a joint milestone this week after a new bridge - that will carry direct rail services between Oxford and Cambridge - was lifted into position over the route of HS2, the high speed rail line under construction between London, Birmingham and the North.

HS2 Ltd, the company delivering Britain’s new low carbon high speed rail network has today launched the fifth round of its successful Innovation Accelerator programme.

Today [Thursday 1 December] Mark Harper, Secretary of State for Transport, and HS2 Ltd Chief Executive Mark Thurston went 33 metres below ground for an exclusive end-to-end tour of the first completed tunnel on the HS2 project.